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Thursday, June 22, 2006 12:00 AM

The artist as mad scientist

She is an intellectual and emotional storm. Her renowned public artworks are reshaping the ways we think about science. Activist, environmentalist and former rock promoter Natalie Jeremijenko turns the art world upside down.

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  • Thursday, June 22, 2006 10:08 PM

    She seems to be...

    ...the kind of artist whose real medium is bureaucracy. Instead of wielding a brush, she wields the power of grant applications. The themes she talks about tend to make more sense on grant applications than they do in real life.

    Science is supposed to be about experiment and discovery, but she seems to be only interested in using science to create polemics against the corporate culture (the same corporate culture that happens to reward her lavishly with grant money and access to museums).

    The typical bureaucratic justification for art grants is that art is supposed to improve the minds of the public. Hence the great stress she puts on all the things her art is supposedly conveying to the public. However, art is in fact a lousy medium for teaching anything, because it can be interpreted in any way one likes. If the public really needs to know about fish on antidepressants, IMO there are better and truer ways to go about it than using art to turn the issue into a comedy.

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